The following information on recent archival processing work at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library was written by Mary Caldera, Associate Director for Archival Description.
Beinecke staff have made available several new collections and additions to existing collections, including:
New collections
Chris Ogden papers (MS 2128)
This collection documents the life and career of Christopher “Chris” Ogden. Personal papers, 1953–2022, include personal files and memorabilia such as correspondence, a résumé, a curriculum vitae, notebooks from early travels, press passes, calendars, and collected publications with inscriptions from Stanley Karnow and Richard Nixon, among others. Writings, 1963–2021, consist of interviews, correspondence, reviews, and press clippings related to biographies Maggie: An Intimate Portrait of a Woman in Power (1990), Life of the Party: The Biography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman (1994), and Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg (1999). Additional writing materials include articles, 1963–2000, and lectures, 1986–circa 2013. Photographs and portfolios, 1960–circa 1990s, are comprised of portraits related to Ogden’s photojournalism career, including of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Andrei Sakharov. This series also contains personal and travel photographs as well as portfolios “Banquet: The Global Photos,” “Portraits: 75@75,” “Street Art: Europe, India, Israel, the Americas,” and “Street Art: Rome.” Photograph and portfolio computer files, circa 2022, are comprised of digitized photographs and photograph portfolios. (9.42 linear feet and 44.39 gigabytes)
Geoffrey Hartman and Renee Gross Hartman Papers (MS 2124)
The collection covers the personal and professional lives of Geoffrey Hartman and Renee Gross Hartman. Geoffrey Hartman’s papers document his publications and work as a Yale faculty member of the Comparative Literature department as well as his involvement establishing the Yale Judaic Studies Program and the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. His personal papers document his education and immigration to the United Kingdom and the United States. Renee Gross Hartman’s papers document her writings, correspondence, internment at the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, immigration to the United States, and her extensive work with local Jewish organizations in New Haven, Connecticut. (37.83 linear feet)
Grenfell Press Collection (YCAL MSS 1246) by Kolbe Resnick, Elizabeth Nosari, and Michaela Gibbons
The Grenfell Press Collection consists of business materials, correspondence, photographs, prints, artist and printer’s proofs, original artwork, typescripts, broadsides, printing blocks, artist books, posters, and ephemera related to and created in the operations of Grenfell Press. Included are production materials for publications, as well as other printed material such as letterhead and greeting cards. The material in the collection spans 1972to 2021, documenting Grenfell Press’ activities as a highly collaborative endeavor, bringing together artists, writers, and printers in the production of every publication. (149.36 linear feet)
Paul Ganster collection of Freddy Fixer Parade photographs (GEN MSS 2160) by Gladys Garcia
The collection contains photographs of the 1964 Freddy Fixer parade and spectators in the Dixwell neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut taken by Paul Ganster, then an undergraduate student at Yale University. (5.63 linear feet)
Plath Family papers (YCAL MSS 1369) Matthew Gorham and Elise Riley
The Plath family papers document the life and work of American poet Sylvia Plath, her relationship with her family, the lives of her parents, Aurelia and Otto Plath, and her brother, Warren Plath. The papers consist of correspondence, personal and professional papers of members of the Plath family, photographs, and audiovisual materials. (21.58 linear feet)
Suffolk Engraving and Electrotyping Co., Glass Transparencies from Supplementary Portfolios of Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian (WA Photos 1347) by Matthew Mason
Glass transparencies created by the Suffolk Engraving and Electrotyping Co., approximately 1922-1930, in the production of photogravures of copy photographs of images of American Indians created 1903-1928 by Edward S. Curtis. The photogravures produced from these transparencies and others formed groups of large loose photogravure plates supplementing each of the twenty bound volumes of Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian (1907-1930). (1.67 linear feet)
Sheldon Family papers (GEN MSS 2104) by Elise Riley
This collection contains correspondence, military papers, legal papers, printed material, photographs, journals, and other papers relating to members of the Cooper, Tweed, Savage, and Sheldon families. (9 linear feet)
Terry Tempest Williams Photography Collection (WA Photos 1348) by Gladys Garcia with Jim Fisher
The collection mostly consists of landscape photography collected by Terry Tempest Williams over the course of her career and life, as well as professional portraits of Williams herself. Most of the photographs are directly related to Williams’ creative projects or projects she has consulted on. Thematic elements of collection span environmentalism, animal welfare, nuclear war, spirituality, and the American Southwest. (44.67 linear feet)
William Downie papers relating to exploration of British Columbia (WA MSS S-2490)
Papers consist of diaries, correspondence, writings, printed works, photographs, maps, and other materials that document William Downie’s life, interest, and travels in the Northwest, particularly during the 1850s and 1860s. The papers offer evidence of early exploration and mining operations in British Columbia, particularly in the Quesnel Forks area by the Quesnelle Mining Company. Downie’s interest and encounters with indigenous inhabitants are recorded. William Downie was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1819. He worked as sailor before joining the Gold Rush in San Francisco in 1849. He mined near Sacramento and along the Yuba River in California, in British Columbia (where he studied Canadian Indians and made reports to the Canadian government about the topography of the land around the Skeena River and the British Columbia coastline), and in Panama. He founded the California town of Downieville, California’s first state capitol. A volume of his reminiscences, Hunting for Gold, was published in 1893 by the California Publishing Company in San Francisco. He died in San Francisco in 1894. (.5 linear feet
Additions to existing collections
Annie Finch papers (addition)
Copy of Invocations to the Goddess…and then some: program, 1989 June 30 (.25 linear feet)
David Stanley and Ann Handforth McLellan papers (addition) (GEN MSS 2143)
This series includes slides of the McLellan family’s travels through Europe and the United States.
Correspondence includes personal letters between various members including David Stanley and Ann Handforth McLellan to their daughter Marjorie and son-in-law, Gary Greenberg. (.5 linear feet)
Donald Clifford Gallup papers (addition)
Consists of Ezra Pound ephemera and printed contributions (.42 linear feet)Eileen Myles papers (addition) by Tina Evans (.25 linear feet)
Consists of a copy of 4 3 2 Review a literary magazine with US Mail, manuscript poem, on verso.
General Collection manuscript miscellany (addition)
Consists of a letter written by Henry Hotchkiss to his son, Henry L. Hotchkiss, details the elder Hotchkiss’s trip on the Union Pacific Railroad. (1 letter)
J.D. McClatchy papers(addition)
Consists of a Yale University Press catalog and a copy of Elektra program. (.25 linear feet)
Jim Fouratt papers (addition) (GEN MSS 1453)
Consists of correspondence and ephemera. (.25 linear feet)
Mary Dillman papers (addition) (MS 2119)
This series consists of born-digital materials created by Mary Dillman while conducting her research into Jane Roberts and the Seth community. Included are interviews Dillman conducted with students from Roberts’s ESP classes, neighbors, friends, and acquaintances of Jane Roberts throughout her life. The interviews were completed over a thirty year period between 1988 and 2018. Also included are indexes created by Dillman of the Jane Roberts papers (MS 1090), highlighting important dates, locations, and individuals affiliated with Jane Roberts and her Seth sessions. (2.83 gigabytes)
N. Scott Momaday papers (addition) (YCAL MSS 807)
The series contains correspondence, writings, photographs, printed material, professional papers, personal papers, audiovisual material, computer files, and awards. (18.45 linear feet)
Yale Collection of American Literature manuscript miscellany (addition)
Clippings relating to Ezra Pound (.25 linear feet)